Religion

James Finley’s statement about great religion and pain asks us to recognize “suffering as suffering and transform our suffering into mindfulness, compassion, peace, and liberation. … The teachings of the Buddha were not to escape from life, but to help us relate to ourselves and the world as thoroughly as possible.”

In 1754, Horace Walpole coined a word from the title of a fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip.” It tells the tales of heroeswho“were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” Life, then, became replete with these events … but only for those with eyes to see!

It has been said that we, particularly in the United States, have become a “throw-away” society. I won’t argue the verity of the statement. Surely, data will either affirm or deny it, but numbers do not always produce the complete picture. Experience offers a sharper image.

I have always been in touch with the core reality of my being a first generation Italian-American. It has colored my life experience in multiple ways. Many of the exaggerated idiosyncrasies discovered in a Mediterranean heritage are also uncovered in my fairly boisterous personality, the loudness of my laughter and the depth of my sorrows. My hands are in motion whenever I speak. My humor could rarely be perceived as subtle or dry.

With a smile or two to deepen my pleasure, I remember enjoying the adventures of “The A Team” evolving with the ultimate and triumphal pronouncement: “I love it when a plan comes together.” Although it really wasn’t a plan that came together recently, I sensed providential planning plaguing my steps. It evoked a series of serendipitous events, emails, and experiences. The events were catalysts for the experiences and made the emails profoundly meaningful.

Two of my friends have been pivotal in my deepening awareness of vision’s wonder. One is a woman who has become totally blind after years of lessening sight. The other is a man who awakened one morning to the reality that he had no sight in one eye.

Both individuals, in their differing circumstances, were challenged to accept a loss and to find in it a gift. No doubt, this was not an easy task. Nor is it one that is completed in one fell swoop.